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Homeland – First 1,000 Words Part 1

Tomorrow is July 1st which means Camp NaNoWriMo starts! YEAH! *throws confetti* In honor of my third NaNo, I’m sharing the first 1,000 words of my very first NaNo novel, Homeland. Here’s the logline for the novel:

Returning after 150 years, alien invaders make a second attempt to take over the earth, and a brother and sister pair, caught behind enemy lines, are left to grow up alone and to defend their devastated city against the alien authorities, and in the end find out a disturbing truth.

A few months ago, I entered these 1000 words in a Go Teen Writers contest. While I didn’t win, my entry was in the top 40 out of 200 entries which I was pretty excited about. Anyway, here is the first part of my 1000 words. Enjoy!

Foolishly, I chanced a look over my shoulder, my feet pounding, my heart thumping. They were still behind us. They would catch up to us soon, I knew it. I shouldn’t have taken that second to look. My breath came in short steamy puffs as I tried to keep up with my brother. The traitorous moon tried to penetrate the dust and give away our location as we ran through the city streets. Fortunately, its dim light did little to cut through the black night. As black as their uniforms, I thought. That picture made me push my legs even harder.

“Jace!” I cried out, hoping my brother would answer, hoping for some reassurance that we could get out of this mess. He didn’t answer. He only kept running. I tried to concentrate on moving my feet and legs faster and faster, even though my muscles were burning, because I knew what would happen to us if they caught up.

“Tessa! Down here!”

I followed my brother into a small, dark alleyway. At the end, we stopped dead, my feet at last still but my heart racing on, pounding out of fright and exertion. I longed to be safe in our apartment more than anything at that moment.

“Jace, what happens if –” I whispered into the darkness.

Jace’s growl cut me off. “Be quiet, Tessa. You’re not helping.”

I bit my lip, knowing Jace was right. I hung close to his side, waiting for him to tell me what to do next.

“I don’t know how we’re getting out of this,” Jace muttered under his breath, as he gazed upwards. I followed his eyes up to the top of the tall, gray, chain link monster blocking our path. It was at least twenty feet tall. Feeling caged in, I spun around certain they were right behind us. There were flashing lights nearby – no doubt the glittering torches the officers wore on their wrists – but they hadn’t found us yet. It was a dead end road, though, and we had nowhere to go. We are going to be captured and tortured by the Primarins. I tried to push the thought out of my head, to stay brave like Jace, but I wasn’t my confident brother.

Jace reached up, gripped the chain link, and started climbing.

“What are you doing?” I hissed at him.

“I’m getting out of here!” he whispered back. “Start climbing!”

“I can’t!” I choked out the words, as I felt the tears start to fall.

Jace slipped down the chain link a few feet, and I gave a scared yelp thinking he was falling. He grabbed my arm. “Come on, Tessa! You are climbing it!”